L2/04-187
Source: Rick McGowan
Title: Phoenician Recommendation
Date: June 7, 2004
There is a proposal before UTC for the encoding of the Phoenician
script, L2/04-141R2. Deborah Anderson has discussed the encoding
issues with a number of scholars and received feedback summarized
in L2/04-177. I have read that paper, and the proposal, and much
of the extended Phoenician discussion on the Unicode mail list.
Like the encoding of Sumero-Akkadian Cuneiform, Phoenician encoding
is perceived by some scholars as a useful pedagogical tool. Phoenician
encoding has been construed by some to be harmful to Semitic studies,
but the technical consequences of a separate encoding for those
claiming significant impact are not at all severe: they can easily
circumvent or avoid such problems merely by continuing to do exactly
as they are currently doing, with square Hebrew and/or Latin
transcriptions of their texts. An encoding of Phoenician useful for
pedagogical purposes in one field does not significantly impact
people working in other fields.
While it is, in some fields, considered virtually identical to the
Hebrew script in semantic content and thus redundant, it is also
considered by others a clearly separate historically valid script.
Objections to encoding frequently amount to failure to see particular
usefulness of the encoding for their purposes, but often indicate that
no particular harm would result. This is similar to the reactions of
some Cuneiform scholars to the encoding of Cuneiform: essentially
harmless and not necessarily useful in serious scholarship.
Given four relevant scholars cited by Dr Anderson as being in favor
of the proposal for pedagogical use, and no evidence being presented
to bolster some claims of its harmfulness to Semitic studies, it is
my view that the UTC should favor encoding of the Phoenician script.